


Prom Courting

by mishallaneously



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, M/M, Prom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-22
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-10 14:43:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4395872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mishallaneously/pseuds/mishallaneously
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean has no intentions of going to prom, that is until he finds out he might be prom king.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prom Courting

The entire month of May could be summarized by one word. Prom. Dean was sick of it. Every day at school all he heard in the hallways was how different people had been asked or rumors about who was going to ask whom. He didn’t even want to go to prom, hell, he wasn’t even planning on going despite his mom’s and brother’s nagging. That was until the morning announcements.

It wasn’t a particularly special morning, the class was buzzing with the excited chatter that came with working on partner projects. Dean’s partner, of course, was his best friend, Castiel Novak. The two had been inseparable since they met in elementary school, after Cas unthroned Dean as master of the handball court. It had been an embarrassing affair, having the quiet bookworm with glasses that were perpetually slipping down his nose absolutely decimate Dean in the game he had declared himself the champion of. It had worked out though, Cas hadn’t gloated, he’d even shared his Lunchable with Dean after he saw him not-so-slyly dabbing at his wet eyes. So yeah, best friends, permanent project partners, what have you, Dean and Cas were a package deal.

They were in the middle of discussing the pros and cons of purchasing more Apple stock for their final Econ project when the loudspeaker came on overhead. The whole class paused, waiting for the announcement.

“Good morning Lawrence High and please excuse the interruption!” The perky voice overhead began with a slight lisp. Dean grimaced, Becky Rosen’s voice was grating, whoever had given her permission to give announcements should be fired. “The candidates for this year’s Prom Court are…” Dean tuned her out and turned to Cas, who was still listening politely.

“You going to prom, Cas?”

“Hmm?” Cas blinked slowly, registering the question. “What? Oh, well, I think I might. I know for a fact that Meg Masters was considering asking me. And Gabriel says prom is a lucky night, I’m sure I wouldn’t want to miss it.” He shrugged.

“Dude, Gabe means you’ll probably get lucky. You want to get lucky with Meg?” Dean wrinkled his nose in disgust.

“I don’t see any drawbacks to a little bit of luck, no.” His eyebrows creased together in confusion.

“Cas, no, that’s not-”

“And Dean Winchester! Please place your votes for Prom King and Queen in the ballot box near the Student Store!” The loudspeaker clicked off and the whole class stared at Dean before erupting into applause. Dean whirled around in his seat. What happened, what did Becky say?

 

“Dean, I thought you were resolutely not going to prom.” Cas whispered. And Dean knew he was right, he didn’t know how many times he had whined and griped about the dance to Cas, but surely enough to get the message across.

“Did- Did Becky just say I might be Prom King?” Dean scrubbed a weary hand down his face. All of the Prom Court nominees were required to attend the dance. Shit. Now he had to buy a ticket and a tux and go to the fucking prom.

“It seems so.” Cas said grimly, his lips in a tight, solemn line. He withdrew his hands from the pocket of that ratty burgundy sweatshirt he was always wearing and put a consoling hand on Dean’s shoulder, squeezing gently. “We’ll go together, it’ll be fun.”

Dean’s stomach twisted into a knot at Cas’ words. His throat felt tight with feelings he had been spending most of his spare time denying, trying to stamp out. Cas didn’t mean it like that, Cas never meant it like that. Cas, registering Dean’s strained facial expression and the stiff, uncomfortable set of his shoulders, took his hand away and placed it back into the depths of the burgundy sweatshirt.

“As friends, of course.” Cas added in a rush. “We’ll go tuxedo shopping, I hear it’s quite an ordeal. And you can help me ask Meg, or perhaps I’ll take that girl April from our physics class.” Dean’s heart plummeted. Right, friends, that’s all he and Cas were, all they would ever be. Anything else would be ridiculous. Of course Cas didn’t mean they would attend together as dates.

“Yeah, okay Cas. I’m just pissed I have to go at all.” Dean muttered. He glared over his shoulder. “Which one of you assholes voted for me anyway?” The class looked up, and Jo Harvelle looked a bit too smug for Dean’s liking.

“Mr. Winchester, watch that mouth of yours,” Mrs. Mosely scolded.

“Sorry, ma’am.” He ducked his head and picked his way over to Jo’s desk. He stood in front of her, hands on his hips, until she registered him.

“Dean! To what do I owe the pleasure?” She beamed up at him innocently. He frowned.

“You know what you did.”

She sighed. “Dean, yeah, I voted for you but it’s not like I organized a whole coalition of kids to do it too. Like it or not, but people dig you around here. So if you want to blame anyone for this blame yourself, or at least your parents for your goddamn flawless bone structure.” Dean grumbled something incoherent and stalked away. He slumped back into his seat next to Cas.

“Who do you think you’ll ask, Dean?” Cas prodded and Dean had to bite his tongue from saying  _‘_ _you, Cas’_  because that was the whole thing wasn’t it? The whole reason he didn’t want to go to prom in the first place? Because he didn’t want to go with someone that he didn’t have feelings for, someone he hadn’t maybe harbored feelings for since a certain day on the world’s most important handball court.

“No one special, probably. Or I’ll go stag, fuck this.” Dean ran a hand through his cropped hair. He hated that he had to care about prom now. Cas looked like he wanted to say something but he turned back to their work.

“Maybe we should sell short on some of these stocks?”

“Yeah, Cas, whatever works.” Dean said halfheartedly, only half focused on their assignment.

  

That afternoon they went to the mall in search of tuxedos. Dean was in a hurry, he wanted to get it out of the way. He walked briskly through the mall while Cas jogged a bit to keep up.

“Dean, correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t we supposed to know the colors of our dates dresses before we pick out our tuxedos?”

Dean slowed down. “I mean, yeah, that’s normally how it goes, but we don’t have dates. Worst case she can match our colors or we just do standard tuxes, no matching, no hassle.” Castiel nodded slowly, soaking in the new information.

“Well, c’mon, the store’s just up here.”

They entered the store and were swept up in the smell of fabric and leather. Cas took his time deliberating between two tuxedos that Dean swore were identical while Dean had chosen his in a matter of minutes. Once Cas had finally chosen, they walked over to the changing rooms. Dean tried his best to keep his mind off how Cas was going to get all primped and pampered for some girl while Dean stood idly by, probably posing for pictures with Lisa Braeden if he had to guess. He wrinkled his nose at the thought, Lisa was great, but she wasn’t Cas. Dean swallowed thickly at the thought, did he really prefer Castiel Novak, his best friend, over arguably the hottest girl in school?

“Dean, would you help me with this bow tie?” Castiel called from the changing room next to his.

“Yeah, man, give me two seconds.” Dean responded, quickly tying his own bow tie.

When Dean pushed the door to Castiel’s dressing room open his breath caught in his throat. His mouth felt dry, like he’d never be able to form words again, at least words that did the sight he was looking upon justice. He blinked slowly, burning the image into his mind permanent. The image of Castiel in a tuxedo. Castiel with sleek, black fabric clinging to all the sharp angles of his body, hugging his waist and showing off his leanly muscled figure that was usually hidden under that baggy burgundy sweatshirt. Dean swallowed around the lump in his throat.

“You, uh, you look good man.” He wiped his hands nervously on his tuxedo pants. “Uh, real good.” Castiel turned around and blushed, bringing out the stark blue of his eyes even more. Dean’s heart did funny things that he really wish it wouldn’t.

“Thank you, Dean. You look nice as well.” He grinned at Dean then and Dean knew he was fucked. How was he supposed to bare seeing Cas smile at someone else like that? No, that smile was Dean’s. “Dean, could you…?” Castiel gestured to the undone bowtie around his neck.

“Right, no problem.” Dean was in Castiel’s space now, he could feel his soft breath on the top of his head as he leaned down to fix Cas’ bow tie. His fingers were less reliable than usual, clumsier. He knew Cas was staring at him and his smell was overwhelming, a mixture of laundry detergent and the slight spice of deodorant. Dean wanted to wrap himself in it. Hell, he wanted to grab Castiel by the lapels of that fucking tuxedo and kiss his stupid face. Shit. “You’re all set.” Dean finished and stepped back to admire his handy work.

Castiel examined himself in the mirror and nodded solemnly. “I think this one will do. What do you think, Dean?” He looked earnestly at Dean, the bow tie sitting snugly in the hollow of his throat. Dean chewed on his lip nervously. Cas looked good- no, that was the understatement of all understatements. Cas looked fucking amazing.

“Dude, whoever goes to prom with you is gonna have a hard time outshining you.” He put his hands on his hips and exaggeratedly looked Cas up and down.

“I could say the same for you.” Silence followed accompanied with a nearly tangible tension hanging in the air. Castiel was looking at Dean expectantly. What? Was he supposed to say something?

“Uh, so I guess we should get changed?”

“I suppose.”

  

Dean pulled up in front of Castiel’s house and handed him his tux from the back seat. As Cas was moving to get out of the car Dean grabbed his shoulder.

“Hey wait, you have any more thought on who you’re gonna take?” Dean licked his dry lips, hoping against hope that maybe they could just both go stag together. At least that way Dean wouldn’t have to be rejected by his best friend and he wouldn’t have to see said best friend cozy up to someone else.

“Yes, I believe I’ve decided. I just have to work out how to go about it.” And Castiel exited the car, not waiting for Dean’s response.

“Wait, Cas, who?” Castiel didn’t respond. Dean rolled down the window and shouted after him. “It better not be Meg Masters!” Cas simply waved over his shoulder and Dean took that as his cue to leave.

Dean spent the whole night with a pit of dread in his stomach. He didn’t want to think about school tomorrow. With prom right around the corner Cas would probably ask his prospective date as soon as possible. But maybe, Dean thought with a glimmer of hope, he could beat him to it. Maybe he’d nut up and ask Cas to prom before Cas asked his lucky lady. Fuck, he’d probably make a giant fool out of himself but he had to try. Dean set his alarm early enough for him to get a bouquet of sunflowers for Cas, they were his favorite after all. The fact that Dean knew that at all assured him that he was in way too deep.

  

The next morning Dean felt queasy. His stomach was in nervous knots and he was pretty sure if managed to actually get the words out to ask Cas to prom he would spew chunks all over him right after. Shit, was it normal to feel nervous to the point of nausea? He took a couple of deep breathes, gathered up the bouquet of sunflowers that he was starting to second guess, and got out of the car.

The walk up to the quad was a mixture of trying to hide the bouquet of garish yellow flowers from view and tactfully deflecting questions like: “Winchester who’s the lucky girl?” He laughed those off and quickly tried to get to the spot on the quad where Cas spent most of his time before class, usually with his nose in a book. When Dean got to the bench under the oak tree Cas wasn’t there. He checked his watch. Class was supposed to start in ten minutes. He tapped his foot impatiently. Of course Cas picked today of all days to not be analy punctual. He sat down on the bench and tried to refrain from fiddling with the bouquet.

Almost as soon as he sat down he heard a guitar behind him. He spun around and there was Cas, acoustic guitar slung around his neck and Dean had known him for basically a lifetime and he didn’t know Cas knew how to play guitar.

“Cas, what are you doing?” Dean asked. Cas kept playing though and, to Dean’s complete surprise, he began to sing.

 _“_ _Honey you are a rock, upon which I stand…”_  Castiel’s voice was deep and rough and it sent chills scattering down Dean’s spine.

“Cas, what is this?” Dean’s voice was wavering. He knew this song. This was not a song you sang casually to your friends. Cas was rounding the bench now, still singing.

 _“_ _And I came here to talk, I hope you understand…”_  Cas’ eyes were wide, a bit scared if Dean had to describe it, but his voice was strong.  _“_ _The green eyes, yeah the spotlight, shines upon you.”_

Dean’s throat was tight, he felt his heart hammering in his chest, and he could see the quad filling up with spectators around them. Yet he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Cas.

 _“And how could, anybody, deny you.”_ Cas was right in front of Dean now, his hair was messy, his stubble was dark along his jaw, and Dean didn’t think he had ever wanted to kiss someone as much as he did right then. _“_ _I came here with a load, and it feels so much lighter now I met you._

The bell sounded somewhere in the background, but it was all ambient noise to Castiel. Castiel who was currently crooning a Coldplay song to Dean. Was he really worth this? Dean ducked his head away from Castiel’s attention. He wasn’t worth this, no, Cas was just confused. As if he could read Dean’s thoughts, Castiel dropped his hands from the guitar and lifted Dean’s chin up and he continued to sing,  _“_ _And honey you should know, that I could never go on without you, Green Eyes.”_

He looked as if he was going to keep singing the next verse but Dean couldn’t help himself, he stood wrapped his hands around Castiel’s face and pulled him into a kiss that was years in the making. He heard cheers and wolf whistles from behind him, and an “It’s about damn time!” from Jo Harvelle probably but all that mattered were Cas’ soft, full lips pressed gloriously against his own. He pulled back and Cas grinned shyly, his face flushed pink.

“Just so you know, I’m never forgiving you for stealing my thunder,” Dean said, grinning, their faces still close together. Cas drew back, a confused wrinkle forming between his brows.

“Excuse me?”

“I was gonna ask you to prom, you idiot.” Dean picked up the bouquet of sunflowers and pushed it into Castiel’s hand. “So will you go to prom with me?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

**Author's Note:**

> the song used is Green Eyes by Coldplay


End file.
